Soon word came that the front-line fleets had begun fighting.
Because Zhao Chen was only an interstellar fighter pilot, he could learn very little.
He could only watch the open-channel battle reports in the ready room.
And, in conversation, ask Lieutenant Zhang for whatever useful intelligence he could get.
First, Zhao Chen learned this.
The whole campaign was divided among many battlefields.
For the Star Alliance had sent out three million interstellar warships in all this time,
divided into three Star Alliance group fleet groups.
And under each group fleet group there were ten regular fleet groups.
Generally one regular fleet group was responsible for the fighting in one war zone.
Which meant the battlefields, great and small, numbered fifty if not a hundred.
Of course, some battlefields lay fairly close together.
Through a starship's deep-space telescope one could even see the flashes of gunfire on the next battlefield.
Two battlefields might fight their way into one.
Or one battlefield might, at some commander's deliberate arrangement, split into two.
In short, this was a great campaign.
The Star Alliance's three million interstellar warships alone showed as much.
"We've sent out three million interstellar warships; how many does the enemy have?" Zhao Chen asked.
"A million, by report," Lieutenant Zhang answered.
"Three million against one million? Isn't that a sure win?" Zhao Chen said in surprise.
Lieutenant Zhang shook his head. "Don't you know the nature of our Alliance's warships? Well, that's fair: you were in planetary defense before; little wonder you know less about warships."
He paused and went on.
"Most of what the Alliance uses now are warships built by the White Rose Group. And the White Rose Group builds warships very fast. They say that at saturation production they can turn out a whole Alliance fleet group in a month! When our Leader fought his wars, he won by warships he could flood out in a short time. And ship for ship, the value for money is very high. But as for a single warship's performance, that is not necessarily first-rate. That does not mean we have no very strong warships, though. Only that those warships have been gathered by the Leader into one fleet. The Star Leader Fleet Group! Under the Leader's own direct command. All of them very strong warships, but to this day no one knows how many warships that Star Leader Fleet Group has. Its one appearance was in the greatest battle of our universe's civil war. With a mere hundred thousand warships the Star Leader Fleet Group wiped out three hundred thousand of the enemy's. And that battle settled the Leader's victory in our civil war!"
Whenever the Leader was mentioned, Lieutenant Zhang's eyes were full of worship.
And not Lieutenant Zhang alone; nearly everyone was the same.
And the phrase most often on their lips was this.
'If I were a woman, I'd marry the Leader for certain!'
Watching a crowd of men clamoring about marrying the Leader, Zhao Chen felt a chill go through him.
Zhao Chen drew his thoughts back.
He had now put a label on the Alliance's military fleets.
This was a starship force that won by numbers.
But it also had a mysterious elite force.
Just then the electronic displays before every couch began updating one after another.
A closer look showed they were data on the enemy's interstellar fighters, drones and other combat units.
Data bought, naturally, with the lives of the comrades who had first met the enemy.
Everyone in the ready room watched the data intently.
And analyzed it with one another besides.
This enemy fighter, for instance, was not very agile; one could dogfight it.
That one was fairly fast; mind it did not get on your tail, better to have several fighters work together.
Zhao Chen glanced over it.
There was broadly nothing very striking.
After all, Zhao Chen was himself a starship technician; he knew something of such technological weapons.
And the figures of every fighter in Owl Dragon service he could recite backward.
So he needed only a glance to analyze the other side's strengths and weaknesses.
Broadly, the enemy's fighters were a notch better in performance.
But had no advantage in numbers.
They could win by quantity.
Suddenly.
The three lamps above the ready room's door lit at once.
The green light turned into three amber lights!
At that moment everyone in the ready room who had been chatting fell silent.
Lieutenant Zhang put aside his mood for talk and stood up.
He looked at the three hundred people in the ready room.
And called out, "All fighter pilots, go to second-degree readiness. Check your gear. Don't let me down at the critical moment! Remember! This battle matters greatly to our Third Group. Every one of you, show what you can do. Each of you is to destroy at least one enemy fighter of the same grade. Or don't blame me for being hard on you afterward! Is that understood!"
"Understood!"
The ready room was solemn now.
Zhao Chen knew this meant the carrier's fighters were about to enter the current combat rotation.
Once those three lamps turned red, every pilot in this ready room had to be ready to fly out and fight!
"Don't be nervous. Just be as you were flying your old ground-air fighter," Lieutenant Zhang said, clapping Zhao Chen's shoulder again.
Zhao Chen nodded.
Dong, dong, dong.
Just then a sound rang out.
The three lamps at the door turned red, from the first to the third.
Which meant that the flight squadron in this ready room had formally entered combat.
At the same time a huge holographic display appeared at the front.
On it were the names and numbers of over three hundred people.
All of them green just now.
Meaning: standing by.
Beep, beep, beep, beep.
Just then several names and numbers turned amber.
Those people stood up and walked quickly out of the ready room.
Lieutenant Zhang stood at the door, clapping each one's shoulder as he saw them off to the lifts where their fighters waited.
And the rest had only to wait for their own fighters to be raised.
In a mere minute the ready room was half empty.
Just then Zhao Chen's name turned amber too.
Zhao Chen looked at the number of the fighter assigned to him.
DK9577.
'DK9577, your fighter will shortly be ready. Reach bay 16 in Sector C within thirty seconds and prepare to launch!'
Zhao Chen rose, put on his helmet, and walked out the door.